Master of Science in Hospitality Business Management

Emerging Global Opportunities in Hospitality

Working professionals across the hospitality industry recognize the need to sharpen their analytical skills and gain a wider strategic view if they hope to assume a larger managerial role in the industry. Like many areas of the private sector, hospitality companies continue to see change and disruption as established brands seek more market share and emerging lodging brands, restaurant groups, entertainment companies and technology platforms try to identify and claim niche markets. Our intensive one-year M.S. in hospitality business management program will help you predict future change, and lead with confidence.

Program Highlights

All Lerner business programs advance management and seek innovation at the intersection of analytic inquiry and experiential learning. That’s doubly true for the Master of Science degree in hospitality business management, including our two labs: the Marriott Center for Tourism and Hospitality, which provides students the opportunity to learn and work in a hotel, and the student-run gourmet restaurant Vita Nova where students can engage in purposeful research.

6-Week Advanced Lodging Practicum

All M.S. in hospitality business management students complete HRIM 764, a 6-week practicum at the Courtyard Newark at the University of Delaware. The hands-on learning experiences in management and operations give you actionable knowledge you can apply in your future career. This experience-driven learning course gives you insight into the day-to-day operations of a full-service hotel. On the operational side, you’ll complete a rotation of the hotel’s various departments. In the management component, you’ll learn a General Manager’s duties at the financial, operational and strategic levels — including front desk operations, reservations, revenue management, marketing, guest services, security, executive housekeeping and night auditing.

Program Requirements

All students are expected to have at least two years of work experience (including internships). From that base you will begin to deepen your management, analytical and strategic knowledge and skills.

The 30-credit required core extends across two semesters (fall and spring) and two sessions (Winter and Summer).

Spring Semester:

Summer Session:

HRIM764 Advanced Lodging Practicum (at the Courtyard by Marriott)

Career Opportunities

The hospitality industry encompasses a number of employers — lodging properties, airlines, restaurants, cruise lines, car rental firms, travel agents, and tour operators, among others, and it is growing. By 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that wage and salary jobs in the hospitality industry will grow by 8 percent.

In the United States, travel and tourism are among the nation’s largest services export industries, and one of America’s largest employers. In fact, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, hospitality ranks among the top-10 largest industries in 48 states in addition to the District of Columbia.

Welcome International Students!

The University of Delaware is an ideal place for international students. We invite you to take a virtual tour of our beautiful campus. As an international student, you will find that Newark, Delaware and the University of Delaware campus provide an ideal gateway to classroom and hands-on United States work experience. Newark is a welcoming city, and offers easy rail, air and car access to every major business hub on the East Coast (New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.), all within a two-hour drive of campus.

International students represent 105 countries and comprise nearly 30 percent of the University’s overall graduate population and approximately 44% of the Lerner College Graduate student body. We provide many international graduate student organizations to help you feel at home quickly.

Industry Proven Faculty

Lerner hospitality business management faculty bring deep applied research knowledge, extensive corporate experience and wide-reaching association memberships and networks — all of which can lead you to fresh insights on a changing global economy and industry. Faculty expertise includes: convention management, public-private partnerships in international hotel development, revenue management, and consumer psychology and behavior.

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Zvi Schwartz is a Professor in the Department of Hospitality Business Management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware. His scholarly research and industry consulting focus on the core technical and strategic elements of the revenue management cycle: forecasting, optimization and monitoring, as well as the closely-related topics of strategic pricing and consumer and firm decisions in advanced reservation environments. Schwartz’s recent projects explore novel hotel forecasting approaches, occupancy forecasting accuracy measures, hotel competitive sets, overbooking optimization and revenue management performance measures.

For more information, Contact Director of Graduate Studies Srikanth Beldona at ms-hbm@udel.edu or +1-302-831-6077.

Admissions Information

Learn more about master of science in hospitality business management admissions requirements, deadlines, tuition and scholarships available to you.